Precipice
by trufflemores
Summary: 4x14. Marley supports Blaine during a time of need, and Blaine has a realization about his relationship with Kurt. SPOILERS for "I Do." Takes place after the car scene makeout and during wedding reception. Marley/Blaine friendship, Kurt/Blaine romance. COMPLETE.


**Disclaimer**: I do not own Glee or any of its characters; Ryan Murphy and Co. hold that honor. I'm simply writing this for fun, not profit.

"Blainey-days," a voice croons, pulling him away from the dance floor and towards one of the tables along the wall. Blaine tries to twist around to see his captor, turning with a slight smile when Marley finally lets go of him.

"Aren't you supposed to be hanging out with your beau?" he chides lightly, letting her wrap her arms around his waist and sway slightly with him to the music. It's playful, sweet in a refreshing way as the band continues to play in the background. He wraps his own arms around her shoulders teasingly, asking, "What are you doing?" as he sways along slowly. Over her shoulder he can see Kurt chatting amiably with Quinn and Mercedes in one corner, nodding and even letting a hiccupy laugh at something they say. Blaine smiles at him, turning his attention back to Marley as she tweaks his lapel once in gentle rebuke.

"We're dancing," she says, humming along to the music. "What else would we be doing?"

Blaine hums a little. "Allow me to rephrase: why are _we _dancing?"

"Because you should know that you are the luckiest man in this room." Blaine pauses, Marley continuing to sway a little, refusing to be off-put by his surprise. "Everyone else here knows that what they have is temporary," she continues easily, coaxing him back into swaying along with her. "Jake and I, we know that we're not forever. And I love Ryder, I think he's a great guy, but I know that I'm not going to _marry _him." She looks up at him seriously, then, and says quietly, "I think that you and Kurt are the kind of forever-people."

"Forever-people," Blaine muses, earning a light shoulder-punch. "Ow!"

"You're ruining my thoughtful gesture," she chides, resting her head on his shoulder. He rests his own cheek against hers, dancing along, smiling at Kurt when he offers him a baffled look before returning to his own conversation, still flushed pink from their own festivities. Blaine knows that any of their McKinley friends could guess why they both looked so utterly blissed out when they entered the reception ballroom, but it doesn't make him any less pleased to see Kurt, bright-eyed and _happy. _He's missed that, he knows, with painful, utter certainty. He's missed Kurt being so _happy. _

"You love him," Marley says without hesitation. Blaine nods once, heart in his throat as he watches Kurt lift a hand to ruffle the back of his own hair sheepishly, cheeks flaming at one of Mercedes' comments. As much as he wants to stay by Kurt's side and never let him go again, Blaine's glad that he's not close enough to hear it, keenly aware that he's probably a part of the playful jibe.

"Of course I do," he says.

"No, I mean you _love _him. Like, you really, really love him."

Blaine frowns a little, pulling back to look at her. "I love him more than anything in this world," he asserts softly.

She nods, squeezing his upper arm as she pulls him over to one of the small couples' tables. He lets her, absentmindedly noting Ryder and a girl he doesn't recognize chatting at another table, Jake playfully dipping Sugar mid-dance as she shrieks with laughter, drowned out by the band.

"Then you need to tell him that," she says, reaching across the table for his hand. He lets her have it, squeezing hers back lightly and looking over at her. "Okay? You need to talk to him and tell him why you still want to be in a relationship with him."

Blaine dry-swallows, a chill washing over him at the thought. He hasn't questioned Kurt's sudden, inexplicable desire to just forgo all the complications of deeper explanations and lengthy promises. He didn't talk much, didn't ask why, just pulled him forward and _kissed him,_ and for those blissful minutes it seemed like everything was finally right again in Blaine Anderson's world.

Even though it's been a thought that has been subconsciously running across the back of his mind for no less than three months, he never thought he would actually have the opportunity to kiss him again. He's ached for it, craved it on the dark, lonely nights when it feels like he's slowly suffocating without him, drowning in nothing. He's wanted to call and text Kurt a hundred more times than he already has just to see a response light up the screen or, better yet, hear his voice, crackling from a thousand miles away. He's wanted it, needed it, but he's restrained himself ever since that night in Bryant park, knowing that a single wrong step could mean certainty.

Certainty that it was over. That _they_ were over.

He swallows, because he doesn't want to think about that trembling unawareness, that harsh, indubitable reality: they have to confront it before they can move on. As much as he might want to - as _Kurt _might want to - a single kiss, a dozen kisses aren't enough to mend the past between them without full disclosure.

They need to know what they're fighting for.

"What if it's not enough?" he asks, his voice ringing in his own ears, the thought of Kurt looking at him with anything other than bright, warm, loving eyes making some innate part of him cringe.

"What if what's not enough?" Marley asks, gentle and patient, nursing a questionably non-alcoholic flute in one hand. Blaine blinks at her, wondering how long he's been staring unseeingly at the small white floral arrangement on the table, thinking back on the long, cold months of silence and uncertainty.

"What if . . . " He swallows, and she wordlessly passes him the flute. He gratefully takes a deep swallow; it's just water, he realizes, but it helps, nonetheless. "What if my love for him isn't enough? What if he still doesn't believe me? What if he doesn't _want _to believe me?"

"That's your battle to fight, babe," Marley says, squeezing his hand once gently. "He's not going to come crawling back into your arms overnight."

An image flashes before his mind, painfully clear, of Kurt doing just that. He pushes the thought aside, nodding in resignation. "Will he ever?"

"No."

The bluntness in her voice startles him, sliding between the tender places of bliss and ignorance in his heart and bringing cold hard reality back to him. Before he can let the sobering statement curb his overall good mood, she continues.

"He won't come crawling back to you, Blaine. But he might come back to you once he realizes that you aren't going to hurt him again. He might come back to you once he sees that he loves you more than he fears loving you. He might come back to you if he thinks that your love is worth more than a single catastrophic mistake." He flinches a little at the reminder, thinking that if he had actually slapped Kurt, he could not have done more damage. She squeezes his hand, forcing him to see the moment that they're living in and now the weeks of anguish, a time when he didn't know how to function. Because he's on a precipice, hovering somewhere between heaven and hell with no middle ground between, and he doesn't want to think about what will happen now that he's had a taste of what could _be. _

Kurt and he could be _together _again.

He hadn't thought of it like that until Kurt had pulled him close and kissed him, _kissed him _as if he would never get the chance again to, kissed him as if they were still deeply, desperately in love. There had still been hesitations - Blaine especially felt uncomfortable putting his arms around Kurt or even caging him in any regards, but at the same time he didn't want to hover over Kurt and restrain him in that sense - but they had worked through those, slow and tender. They had made each other whimper and whine and claw with _need, _and Blaine is still relatively certain that the smoldering look Kurt gave him as he leaned over him was more than a simple _I want to make out with you in the back seat of a car. _It was, quite simply: _I want to make love with you. _

"Would you forgive your boyfriend if he cheated on you?" he asks Marley quietly, needing to know.

Needing to brace himself for the inevitable.

Marley squeezes his hand and replies, just as softly, "No." Then: "I've never loved someone the way that you love Kurt, either."

He looks at her, desperation and hope and fear mingling in his expression, needing her to _see. _ To know that this is so much more than a simple high school relationship for him, that it's so much more than even just his first real love.

It's everything. _Everything. _

Kurt is everything to him.

And he doesn't know how he can handle only a fraction of what he once had, mere friendship in the place of their soul-deep connection.

That's what it is, really. They're soul mates.

"Kurt loves you," Marley says simply, pulling him to his feet slowly. His legs feel wooden, his entire body suddenly numb with the thought that he'll have to broach this with Kurt. He _has _to, if he has any hope of ever restoring their relationship to something anywhere near what it once was. They're so much more than the physical - they always have been - and he needs that, needs the deeper connection with Kurt if he's going to survive this. "He's going to be torn, but if you really want him, you have to fight for him. You have to re-earn his trust."

Blaine nods, letting her pull him into a brief, comforting hug. "I'm tired of seeing you hurting, B. You're a great guy. You've done so much for everyone else this year, and now . . . now it's time that you do something for _you, _okay? I might be . . . really wrong about you and Kurt - "

"You're not," Blaine corrects quietly.

She ignores him, adding, "But even if it doesn't work out between you two, then you need to settle this. For yourself as much as him. You need to be able to _move on. _Okay? And even if it's not with him, we're here for you." She gives him one last squeeze before pulling away, offering a single bright smile. "If it _is _with him, then I think you'll both be so much happier for it if you talk it out."

He nods. "Thank you."

Marley smiles, cuffing him on the shoulder once lightly, playfully. "Don't get emotional on me," she warns. "I want to dance, not make pretty boys cry." She blows him a kiss as she glides off, cleanly intercepting Sugar and Jake's dance with a single bright smile. Undeterred, Sugar flutters off to find another date, all but leaping into Joe's arms when she sees him.

Shaking his head in amusement, Blaine slowly crosses the dance floor to where Kurt is standing alone, nursing a flute of his own, a wry smile on his face. There's something deeper than mere flirtation in his gaze, though, and Blaine knows it. Still, he extends a hand to him, asking softly, "May I have this dance?"

Kurt smiles, tentative but brilliant, and responds breathlessly, "Yes. Yes, you may," as he takes his hand and follows.

* * *

**Author's Notes**: It has been far too long since I've written Blaine/Marley. I loved the concept when it first came out (in the first episode) and was disappointed when there was no storyline carried on from it. So I've taken a little creative liberty with their friendship and expanded it so that they are like close friends.

This was filled for a prompt from one of my dearest friends, KlaineHarmony.

The prompt itself was: "Ooh, can you write something lovely about Klaine and Marley at the Wemma wedding? Maybe Marley cornering Blaine and doing some affectionate teasing? I know it will be spec, but so fun! :)"

I hope you enjoyed reading this! I enjoyed writing it, and I can't wait for the episode itself.

**Review?**


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